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SonyA common question I’ve heard asked about Marvel’s Avengers, the looter from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix, is when it’s going to come to Xbox Game Pass. The game seems like a prime candidate for something that could use the kind of playerbase boost Game Pass can give it, but instead, it was announced yesterday that Avengers is instead coming to PlayStation Now, Sony’s rival service with roughly 9x fewer subscribers than Game Pass, by last count. Just a couple million out of the broad 100 million plus PlayStation install base. And Avengers is only going to be there for two months.
The more I think about how this all shook out, the more it seems like the deal Square Enix made with Sony on Avengers’ behalf really backfired and has hurt the game both pre and post-launch. No, it’s not solely responsible for all its problems, but man, it sure did not help.
This all started well ahead of launch when it was announced that PlayStation Avengers players, not those on Xbox and PC, would get the Sony-owned superhero Spider-Man as an exclusive Avenger with his own character kit and storyline. In a dwindling age of platform exclusive content for games, this seemed like a pretty big affront to the larger playerbase, and it was one of the most talked about stories ahead of the game’s launch, not really what the team wanted people to be focusing on.
And now it’s even worse in hindsight considering where the game is now. The original plan was to pump out heroes at a rapid pace, but in the first six months, there’s only been Kate Bishop and Hawkeye, two similar heroes. Next fall we will see Black Panther arrive, but missing from all of this? Spider-Man, who was originally supposed to be out around, well, now, but is not on the recently released 2021 roadmap. In a recent interview I couldn’t get Crystal Dynamics to tell me when he might be coming, other than the fact they were still working on him. And now with heroes so rare, devoting one just to Sony alone seems like an even worse call.
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The other part of this is the fact that whatever the Sony deal is, it likely precludes Crystal Dynamics from taking Avengers to Xbox Game Pass for some amount of time. Hence why it’s showing up on PS Now now, although Sony probably could have helped them more if they made Avengers a free PlayStation Plus game for a month instead, given Now’s much more limited subscriber base.
What’s even crazier is that we can see the exact other side of the coin with another looter also made by Square Enix, one that did a deal with Microsoft instead, which allowed Outriders to launch on Xbox Game Pass, but without any bad ideas like an Xbox exclusive class or something like that. It’s pretty significant that these two deals were made under the umbrella of the same publisher, and one played out so much better than the other.
Again, the Sony/Microsoft deals are not why Avengers underperformed and Outriders is overperforming. Fundamentally, Outriders just got a lot more right, especially at launch. But it’s pretty easy to see that Avengers has gained effectively no benefit from the Sony deal, and so far, it’s simply hurt them by annoying fans with the promise of an exclusive Spider-Man, and annoying PlayStation players by never releasing him. And now this PS Now versus Game Pass situation.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens from here, and when, if ever, Spider-Man arrives. But at this point I would imagine he’s contractually obligated to. I’ve asked Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix for comment about Spider-Man’s fate and the potential of a Game Pass release, and will update if I hear back. I’ve asked Sony similar questions, and the choice of PS Now versus PS Plus.
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The Link LonkApril 06, 2021 at 09:44PM
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It's Clear The PlayStation Deal With Sony Really Hurt Marvel's Avengers - Forbes
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